It is time to get rid of repression

A statement by the Syrian Democratic Forum

September 4, 2013

The despotic regime of Bashar al-Assad has launched for more than 29 months a bloody repression against the Syrian’s people revolution.  Furthermore, the regime has used all forms of violence with no impunity, continuously surpassing in its brutality unprecedented levels. In addition, this violence has been exerted, not only against the militants, but randomly against unarmed civilians, no matter whether they are women, men, and children, young or old. Indeed, the regime has committed against our people numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Furthermore, The Syrian authority has taken the country into ruin and chaos. It has pushed the various constituents of the Syrian people into a devastating civil conflict. It released a lot of gangs that are terrorizing and extorting citizens in many areas of the country. Plus, in its mad fight to keep power, it has destroyed the pillars of the state and its institutions.

Its criminality and defiance have reached the point of using chemical weapons against its own people, thus violating all international conventions and putting the country at the brink of a looming and potentially devastating foreign military intervention.

We, in the Syrian Democratic Forum, have always rejected foreign interference, by any party, in the Syrian affairs. Further, we have been always keen to find a political solution to the conflict, in order to preserve the state institutions and to ward off the Syrian people and the Syrian blood. We, in these difficult moments that the tyrannical authority has brought about, call upon the following:

• The soldiers and officers of the regular armed forces, that the time has come to get rid of the tyrannical authority, which has been bringing the country into this end, to stand with the people and the revolution and to converge with the soldiers and officers of the Syrian Free Army who, have already Aligned to the side of their own people; indeed, the country needs you all.

• The soldiers and officers of the Syrian Free Army free and popular resistance, that the revolution is not murder, torture or revenge, but the revolution is first and foremost a political victory for the sake of freedom to all Syrian citizens, preservation of the country, protection of the various contingents of the people and submission of the most notorious criminals to the courts of law, whatever pains and viciousness of repression that they have inflicted.

• All political forces in Syria, to unite in this difficult time and to be open on other political factions of all spectra that believe in the unity of the nation and equal citizenship for all Syrians; to distance themselves from using foreign intervention for their own personal interest; to work fast and hard to win the people working in the state institutions on the side of the revolution; and to engage in dialogue with those who are still fearful of the change, explaining to them that what will be built will be for all Syrians.

• All Syrian citizens, that these the moments will determine whether we deserve to be one people in one country that knows how to resist injustice, reject extremism and forgive and reach out to each other .

Whatever happens in the coming days, we, in the Syrian Democratic Forum; will be on the side of our people, all Syrian citizens from all spectra and tendencies; will not be a tool in the hands of any foreign power; will always stand for winning the objectives of the Syrian revolution, defending the independence and sovereignty and our people’s freedom and dignity.

Long live the revolution of freedom and dignity; long Syria free and sovereign.

The Syrian Democratic Forum